Home(work) for the Holidays

It may seem like an odd thing to do, but at the end of a project I often suggest specific resources for clients to study, on the (perhaps misguided) belief that an educated client is a happy client. This homework, so to speak, often takes the form of reading material, especially research articles that highlight a problem similar to the one the client is trying to solve or that cover families in the same geographic area.

These suggestions are drawn from material that I’ve found particularly helpful, and I’m constantly looking for new articles or studying ones with which I’m already familiar in the hopes of refining my own understanding of research techniques and strategies.

My reading material for this holiday season, when I’m supposed to be on vacation (ha ha), is drawn from the latest issues of genealogical journals to which I subscribe (such as The American Genealogist or TAG and The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, aka The Register, as well as state and regional quarterlies), but also includes a review of older published material.

For instance, one of my favorite periodicals is the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, which is one benefit of membership in the National Genealogical Society. The NGS’ web site contains back issues of the NGSQ dating from the late 1970s to the present. These back issues are a treasure trove for researchers, and I mine them frequently looking for articles that might help me solve a particular research problem.

I’m also in the habit of reading all articles by a particular author, or as many as I can get my hands on. One of my favorites is GeLee (sometimes Ge Lee) Corley Hendrix, who is now deceased. Fortunately, Mrs. Hendrix was a somewhat prolific writer, and because of this her work is still available for other researchers to use.1 I particularly like her articles because they deal with problem areas for Southern researchers, like “burned” counties and South Carolina, which is in a category all on its own. If you’re interested in reading these yourself, here are the articles she wrote to which I have ready access: